MILWAUKEE — Hyun-Jin Ryu will start Game 2 of the National League Championship Series for the Dodgers, Manager Dave Roberts announced Thursday. Right-hander Walker Buehler will start Game 3 on Monday when the series shifts to Los Angeles, followed by left-hander Rich Hill in Game 4 on Tuesday.

Roberts previously announced that Clayton Kershaw would start Game 1 of the series on Friday. He did not want to delay Ryu’s next start beyond Saturday. The left-hander hasn’t pitched since Game 1 of the National League Division Series last Thursday.

“The thought process is … to keep (Ryu) as current as possible, to keep him going,” Roberts said. “He’s pitching really well. And then also just to give Walker just a couple extra days on the front end to get him ready. So we just felt that Clayton starting Game 1, Hyun-Jin going Game 2, and then Walker, gives each of these guys the best chance to perform at their best.”

Ryu tossed seven shutout innings in Game 1 of the Division Series. That extended his personal streak of scoreless innings at Dodger Stadium to 21. In 10 home starts this year, including the postseason, Ryu has allowed only seven earned runs.

Ryu has allowed 11 runs in six starts away from home this year, but that wasn’t enough cause for Roberts to give Ryu the ball in Game 3 instead. The veteran left-hander made his only appearance at Miller Park in 2013. Buehler has never pitched in Milwaukee.

Brewers manager Craig Counsell announced his starters for the first three games of the series Thursday – with one major caveat.

Left-hander Gio Gonzalez will start Game 1, but Counsell said that he would make right-hander Jhoulys Chacin available in relief. Chacin is also the Brewers’ tentative Game 3 starter. Left-hander Wade Miley is scheduled to start Game 2 on Saturday.

“It’s no secret that we’re going to use our pitching a little differently than the traditionalists would like,” Counsell said. “So for us, the first matchup that we liked was Gio on the mound. We’re asking Gio to go out there and get a bunch of outs. How many, you know, we’ll just see how it goes.”

Gonzalez has a 2.34 earned-run average in seven career starts against the Dodgers, including a no-decision in Game 3 of the 2016 NLDS. He hasn’t faced the Dodgers since June 2017. The Brewers acquired him from the Washington Nationals in an August trade.

FRIENDLY CONNECTIONS

For eight years, Dodgers shortstop Manny Machado and Brewers infielder Jonathan Schoop rose through the ranks of the Baltimore Orioles’ organization together. Schoop debuted as a 21-year-old in 2013; Machado debuted at 20 the year before. By 2016, they were in the starting lineup together for the American League wild-card game.

“He’s one of my best friends,” Machado said of Schoop.

Yet they were in opposite dugouts by Aug. 1 – Machado’s first homestand at Dodger Stadium and Schoop’s first weekend as a Brewer. Both were traded as part of the Orioles’ summer fire sale.

Thursday night offered the two friends a brief chance to reunite.

“I haven’t seen him in a while, so (I’ll) definitely try to see him tonight or something,” Machado said after the Dodgers arrived for their only pre-series workout in Milwaukee. “Relationships always go further than sports. So enjoy him today and then tomorrow try to beat him.”

Schoop offered a similar sentiment: “Outside of baseball, we’re friends,” he said. “Inside, tomorrow, we’re going to be enemies.”

HOMETOWN HERO

Brewers outfielder Christian Yelich said he “never thought (he) would see the day” when he would play the Dodgers, the team he grew up rooting for, in the postseason. Yelich is a Thousand Oaks native who attended Westlake High.

“I had a lot of friends, family friends, that had season tickets and we’d all go (to Dodger Stadium) when we were little kids,” he said. “And you’d go after you played your own baseball game and change out of your uniform in the parking lot of Dodger Stadium to go put on street clothes and go watch the game. So there’s a lot of fond memories there.

“Your 10-year-old self probably wouldn’t believe what was about to take place here over the next week or so. It’s going to be a great opportunity, and something to just have fun with, enjoy and just try and take it all in.”

ALSO

One more cross-team connection: Dodgers general manager Farhan Zaidi was part of the Oakland A’s front office that traded for Gonzalez when he was a Double-A pitcher in the White Sox organization in 2008. Zaidi was also part of the A’s front office that traded Gonzalez to the Nationals in Dec. 2011. “He’s seen me when I was a young kid with no facial hair and now two kids later and a beautiful wife,” Gonzalez said of Zaidi. … Roberts said David Freese, who has typically started against left-handed pitchers, would get the start at first base again in Game 1 against Gonzalez. … Teams must submit their final NLCS rosters to Major League Baseball at 8 a.m. PT on Friday. … The same six non-roster players who traveled to Atlanta for the NLDS traveled with the Dodgers to Milwaukee: pitchers Julio Urías, Josh Fields and Ross Stripling, and utilitymen Kyle Farmer, Chase Utley and Andrew Toles. … Gerry Davis (crew chief), Scott Barry, Brian Gorman, Alan Porter, Hunter Wendelstedt and Jim Wolf will be the on-field umpires in the NLCS. Greg Gibson is the replay official.